


Fire

by scentedglitter



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Bushfire, Death, F/F, Fire, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, No major characters die, PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:35:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22030378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scentedglitter/pseuds/scentedglitter
Summary: In the worst times, support can make all the difference. Please see the tags for trigger warnings.A fic written in support of communities impacted by the 2019/2020 Australian Bushfire Emergencies. See inside orthis post on my tumblrfor more information on how you can help.
Relationships: Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell
Comments: 21
Kudos: 68





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Australia is in the middle of an unprecedented bushfire emergency. Ten days ago, driving to my parents' house for Christmas, my entire 500km/310mi trip was through apocalyptic, hazardous smoke haze and it unnerved me into trying to do something. This is it. For more information on the fire emergency, please see the post linked below.
> 
> If you'd like to, and if you're able - no obligation whatsoever - [please consider supporting one of the charities I have highlighted in this Tumblr post (linked)](https://scentedglitter.tumblr.com/post/189953058563/fire-a-fanfic-for-bushfire-support) or providing support in a way you feel is appropriate.
> 
> Thanks, PP fandom, and I hope you've had a lovely holiday period and, even if you aren't able to or don't want to provide support, enjoy this fic. Three chapters, to be posted within the week.

“MUMMYYYY! MUM! ITS HOT!” Beca screams, but it’s hard to breathe and she’s not sure her voice is getting through the wet blanket thrown over her but her Mummy told her not to take it off or else and-

She wakes up in a bright white room. There is a strange buzzing sound but nothing else, and she can feel something on her face.

“Mum?” She calls, but the sound comes out muffled and she angles her eyes down to see a plastic mask over her face. “Mum!!” She increases her volume, and suddenly there’s two people beside her but neither of them are her Mum.

“It’s okay, Beca, your Mummy isn’t here right now but your Daddy is on his way and you’re safe, okay?” one of the people talks, and Beca squints to try and recognise her. They other person, a man, turns around and leaves so she focuses on the woman who talked. She has bright red hair but she doesn’t look like any of her Mum’s friends or family.

“How do you know my name? Who are you? Where is this?” Her Mum always told her to only ask one question at once but her Mum isn’t here anyway.

“I’m Elizabeth, but you can call me Liz. We are at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, I’m a doctor and I’m helping you get better. You’ve heard of the Children’s Hospital, yeah?”

“It’s the one with the... big playground? And you call the tele- the- Good Friday telephone?” Beca asks, scrunching up Her face to try and remember the words.

“Yes, that’s right, the Good Friday Appeal telethon raises money for this Hospital every year so we can help even more kids feel better! And there’s lots of fun things here but maybe you can see them later.”

“Why am I here? Mummy said I would be okay under the blanket. It was very hot, did I get burnt? Or smoke... I don’t know the word...” Beca trails off.

“Inhalation, you mean? You’re very smart Beca! How old are you again? You must be at least 10!” the woman tells her and Beca shakes her head as best she can, feeling something around her head.

“I’m seven. What happened?”

“The blanket did help you, you didn’t get burned, but there was a lot of smoke so you needed to have some extra oxygen to get rid of it, and it was very hot so we needed to help you cool down. We have to keep you here until tomorrow morning to make sure but you will be okay.”

“Okay, Thank you doctor Liz. Can I see my Mummy soon? I don’t like my Daddy, he left mummy and me and he forgot my birthday,” She tells the doctor, frowning slightly.

“Your Mummy is busy, sorry Beca, but if you’d like I can take off your mask now and I could show you where the playground is, you could see some other kids?”

“Does the playground have music? I like music,” she answers, smiling slightly more as the doctor moves and starts loosening the things near her head.

“There is some music, and there’s some instruments so you can make your own music too!” Liz tells her excitedly and Beca can’t wait to get out of the bed so she can go and see.

“Hello,” a girl who looks like a year 4 comes over to where Beca is playing with a xylophone. She’s only a year two, so she lets go of the hitting stick and frowns.

“Do you want to use it?”

“No, you use it, I just like what you were playing so I wanted to say hello. I’m Dr Liz’s daughter, my name is Chloe,” the girl explains and Beca looks up to see that her hair is as red as her Mum’s.

“I’m Beca. Are you sick too or are you visiting your Mum? I visit my Mum sometimes at the high school because she’s a year 9 teacher.”

“I’m not sick, I’m visiting Mum because she has to be here all day because of the fires so no one could look after me at home. But I get to play on the playground when I visit so I don’t mind. You want to play together? I can play the triangle if you do the xylophone,” Chloe suggests, and Beca thinks it sounds like a good idea.

“We were in the fires. It’s why I’m sick. Mummy and I were driving away but it caught up with us so we had to hide under blankets on the floor.”

“I’m glad you’re not too sick then, that sounds very scary,” Chloe tells her, but they start talking about different things then and Chloe somehow makes the triangle fit in with her xylophone playing.

“Beca?” She turns around to see a man who looks kind of like her teacher but younger calling her name. She doesn’t know who he is, though, so she doesn’t answer. “Doctor Liz asked me to come get you, you need to go back to your room,” he adds, and she turns her head. She isn’t meant to follow strangers, but he did say Dr Liz asked him to, and she isn’t a stranger any more. She thinks it should be okay.

“Thank you for playing with me,” She tells Chloe, awkwardly patting her back when she leans over and hugs her before she follows the man back out of the playground.

“Hello Beca,” a voice she definitely knows greets her and she glares up at him in response.

“I don’t want you here Dad. I want Mum.”

“Your Mum... can’t be here any more, Beca. It’s just me now. The fire hurt her really bad,” he replies, and she isn’t sure she understands.

“What? Where is she? Is she at the adults hospital? When will they make her better?”

“She’s not at the hospital Beca. They couldn’t make her better, she died. She’s gone now.”

Beca sits in silence for ten seconds, trying the thought on for size. She knows what dead is, her rabbit died last summer because it got too old.

“NO!” She yells, “Who do I live with now? I can’t look after myself yet, she told me!”

“Well, Beca, you’ll live with me. In the city, too.”

“What? I don’t want to live with you! I don’t want to live in a city! The schools are too big and there’s too many people,” She cries, moving over to the other side of the room away from him, “all my stuff is at Mum’s house and she had the key how am I gonna get it?!”

“Your Mum’s house burnt down in the fire, Beca. All your things are gone too, we’ll have to buy you new things,” he explains, but his voice sounds like it did when he used to get mad at her Mum.

“But Mum knows what clothes I like! I need Mum to buy things.”

“Well, I’m not totally useless, Beca. We’ll work it out.”

“No WE won’t, I’m not going with you! I don’t like you, go away!” She screams as angry as she can and it must work because he makes a face then turns around and leaves her alone in the room.

“Go away Dad!” She grumbles from her seat on the bed, legs dangling over the edge, when she hears the door open a long time later.

“Its me, Chloe, from the playroom,” she says quietly.

“Oh. Sorry.”

“That’s okay. Can I sit with you?” She asks, and Beca simply nods. They sit in silence for so long Beca can’t remember when they started.

“My Mum died,” Beca tells her, her own voice turning quiet as she looks down at the gross hospital bedcovers she’s sitting on. “And my house and all my stuff is gone.”

“Oh, Beca,” Chloe doesn’t say anything much in response but she leans over and hugs Beca and for once she doesn’t really mind it.

Dr Liz comes back in later, after Beca has pushed the gross hospital food around a plate for a while. She isn’t asleep but her eyes are closed so she doesn’t move.

“Chlo?” Liz calls softly, and Beca feels Chloe sit up from where they had been lying down beside each other. She guesses Chloe must have to go home and it makes her tummy feel sore.

“I don’t want to leave her alone Mum. She lost everything and her Dad sucks.”

“I know, Chlo. I know, but you know the rules. I’m going home for a few hours so you need to go too. You have school tomorrow, you need to sleep.”

Chloe moves her hand along Beca’s arm as if to wake her up, so she slowly opens her eyes and pretends she didn’t hear what they said.

“What?” She asks.

“I have to leave, I wanted to hug you first,” Chloe tells her before doing just that. She can see Chloe is crying when she ends the hug and slides off the bed but Beca can’t work out why and she doesn’t want to be rude so she doesn’t ask.

“Dr Liz? Are you going too?” She turns to the adult in the room.

“Yes, but I’ll be back in the morning to check on you, okay Beca? Dr Jacob who got you from the playroom before will be here if you need anything all night.”

She tosses and turns all night, hearing and seeing the fire approaching them every time she tries to close her eyes. But Dr Liz tells her she’s fine, and suddenly her Dad is there again and everyone tells her she has to go with him. She screams anyway as he drags her out, but no one helps her.

* * *

By age fifteen, Beca is back in the country, or at least, a suburb of Melbourne that is far enough away to be its own town instead. She doesn’t know whether to be happy about it or not - she still hated the city when they moved five years ago although as she’s got older she’s changed her mind on that. The real kicker is that they moved in with her Dad’s new wife. She’s fine, she guesses, she just doesn’t say much and Beca feels like an outsider in her own home.

“Rebecca! You need to get to the bus!” Sheila calls, as she’s leaving her bedroom to do just that on her third day of Year 9.

“That’s not my name, Shelly,” she snarks as she walks through the living area past her, turning out and throwing her headphones in her ears before she can respond.

The one luxury of being in a borderline-suburb city, she’ll accept, is that she can take a legit public bus to school and not have to deal with a vehicle full of the shitty kids she has to spend the rest of her day with. It’s appropriately quiet and everyone keeps to themselves, so she doesn’t need to remove her headphones at any point between leaving home and when homeroom starts. She knows she gets weird looks sitting by herself by her homeroom building until then, but whatever. She has like 1.5 school friends and they are reliably late. Also, not great friends.

She drags her feet going to the first class of the morning - science. It’s not that she isn’t any good at it, she just thinks the science labs smell gross and the teachers all act like the existence of students is an inconvenience to them and like, it’s their job for fucks sake why can’t they stop complaining about doing it?

She starts to feel uneasy approaching the classroom, trying not regulate her breathing and not sure why. She slips into the classroom and into a seat up the back with thirty seconds to spare before class starts, her head spinning as she throws her hands over her nose and mouth to try and stop the smell seeping into her awareness. It’s not even just the science lab usually gross musty ness, it’s-

“Okay! Attention up here!” their teacher calls, pulling out a small model of a house on a tray lined with other items she can’t quite see, “to start this year we’re looking at how fire behaves in different contexts! Today we’ll start easy and focus on protecting yourself or someone else in the midst of a fire. Does anyone know what some ways suggested are?” He asks, and people start replying but she feels her ears ringing drowning out what they’re saying and-

“Beca! Grab the blanket from your bed! Quickly!” Her mother shouts, and she wants to ask why they need a blanket when it’s hot but she can see the fire over the hill through the back window and her Mum is crying so she rushes into her room and grabs it, sprinting out and into the car as they go.

Her Mum slams her foot on the accelerator and Beca usually thought going faster would be exciting but this time it’s just scary. It seems to be getting hotter and she risks looking back, expecting the fire to still be back on the hill but it’s right there and-

“FUCK, Beca, empty your water bottle on your blanket, make sure it’s all wet and get down on the floor underneath it, please Beca, don’t move under any circumstances,” her Mum is screaming and crying still as she serves off the road into the empty paddock beside it, and Beca follows her instructions as she upends her water bottle-

“Beca Mitchell!” she snaps back to the classroom, feeling herself flush as she realises everyone is looking at her, “it’s the first day, if you can’t pay attention to this you are not going to pass this class,” her teacher grumbles and she tries to give some kind of confirmation she is paying attention, but she thinks it just comes across as a grimace.

She picks up her pen to attempt to take notes, immediately feeling it flick out of her trembling hand back onto her desk. She grips the cool metal edge of the table, instead, glancing up to see her teacher holding a lighter.

“Now, I’m going to start a fire on the far side of the hill, and we’ll see how all our tests go,” he says, and it’s only then that Beca notices there is multiple parts to his diorama, now, a fake grassy hill leading into a house surrounded by forest, opening up into empty paddocks with a car sitting in the paddocks and- the ignition point is somewhere behind the hill and immediately the fire races up to the top of it. It’s the wrong angle, watching it from the side, but she’s immediately transported back again only this time she’s just standing staring out their back window as it moves down the hill and her mum is screaming but she isn’t moving and she-

Beca pushes back from her table and stands up, her chair clattering back onto the floor behind her as she stumbles out the door, sinking to the ground against the brick of the side of the next building over. She doesn’t know how long she’ll get before the teacher comes out and yells at her, but she tries to use what she has, back against the wall and taking long, slow breaths. She never saw a counsellor after it happened, her old school had them but her new one in the city didn’t and her Dad refused to pay for a private one, thought it’d make her soft. But the online chat one - it was good, when she was 9 and her Dad was too stupid to know how to lock his computer at night. They kind of sucked, actually, but at least they taught her the breathing thing.

“Beca Mitchell! What makes you think you have the right to get up and walk out of my classroom?!” Her teacher’s voice snaps her out of her attempts to calm down much too soon, and she winces, rapidly trying to kick her brain into gear to lie her way out of it.

“I-“ She pauses, her brain not supplying anything useful.

“Just as I thought, pure laziness-“

“PTSD,” she snaps. Fuck it. “Got caught in the 2008 fires. Exactly that scene, raced too quickly down the hill behind us and we had to leave quickly. It caught up with our car so Mum went out into the empty paddock, I got under a wet wool blanket and woke up mostly fine in the Royal Children’s a few hours later. Mum died.”

Her teacher is silent, for a full two minutes, and she keeps her gaze down as she picks at the seam of her shoes.

“You can spend this period in the nurses office if you’d prefer not to come back in,” he breaks his silence, tone less angry although not as apologetic as she’d like. She nods slightly and waits for him to walk back into the classroom before she stands up and wanders in the opposite direction of the nurses office to grab her headphones from her locker and hide out until next period.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I again hope you will please read [this explainer post](https://scentedglitter.tumblr.com/post/189953058563/fire-a-fanfic-for-bushfire-support) about the current situation in Australia, although in the 36 hours since I posted it the situation has become immeasurably, unpredictably worse for much of the south-east coast.
> 
> And of course, there's a little more to this fic than one chapter.

Her Dad wants her to apply for law – hell, the careers counsellor mentioned it in the mandatory appointment she had to endure – but she gets an early entry offer to a Bachelor of Arts at Monash University and they have a major in music production and new accommodation buildings with small studio rooms that means she doesn’t have to deal with forced interaction in traditional student accommodation _or_ the private rental market. She accepts the offer and withdraws all her other applications for main round offers, quietly celebrating that Monash’s main campus is the furthest she could probably get from her Dad and Sheila’s place while still staying in Melbourne, the complete opposite side of the city.

She doesn’t plan to visit often.

Beca elects to move herself onto campus on the move-in day, only having a couple of bags of clothes and her mixing equipment to take with her – there’s plenty of space in her car. She arrives in the morning, trying to force at least some form of smile as the residents committee and the actually-employed head of the building she’s got a room in greet her and hand over a room number, key card and information pack. They inform her that the residential advisor on her floor is putting on a pizza dinner for the floor to meet each other that night, and there’s a heap of activities running through the week but they aren’t compulsory. She likes that last part, but she doesn’t hate the idea of free pizza either.

She has a peacefully productive day, unpacking her clothes into the wardrobe provided and shifting the small amount of furniture around slightly so she has more room around the desk, where she figures she’ll spend most of her time. She wanders slightly off campus to the nearest supermarket she can find on google maps to pick up a few things to stock her kitchenette, relatively used to grocery shopping and planning meals for herself since her Dad and Sheila seem to never fucking eat proper meals.

Still, free pizza is, well, free pizza, so she follows the directions on the sheet she was given and awkwardly wanders out of her room and down the hall to the small communal room at the end of the floor around 6pm. There’s a handful of other people doing the same thing, and they step into the room to see a stack of pizza boxes on the table and a girl with bright red hair waiting for them.

“Hi guys! Welcome to third floor 2019! Come in, grab a seat or the floor or whatever you like, it’s chill, I’ll start passing the pizza around in a sec!” she tells them, way more excitement than Beca is quite used to dealing with in a human.

She decides to grab one of the seats on the actual couch, awkwardly nodding in acknowledgement at the very conventionally attractive brunette that sits down beside her. There’s about twelve people in the room – there’s twenty rooms on each floor, so evidently some people are not so socially inclined even when there’s free food at stake – and the pizza starts being handed around between them alongside paper plates and napkins. Beca goes for the fancy barbecue chicken pizza, happy to go with the slightly weirder choice for the benefit of likely being asked if she wants to take the leftovers home when no one else does. Maybe.

“Okay, I’m not going to do any stupid ice breaker games because I know we all hate that, but how about we go around the circle and just do name and degree? I’ll start, then we can go around to my right?” the redheaded RA asks them, and there’s a few audible stutters and one enthusiastic yes from the girl sitting to Beca’s right. “Okay, I’ll go then – I’m Chloe, I’m your RA, and I’m going into my third year of a bachelor of education focussing in primary teaching.”

Beca figures she should pay attention to the names given out, if she’s going to inadvertently see these people in the hallways sometimes (if she leaves her room much – she does have a bathroom and kitchen in her room so like, why leave?). The girl beside her introduces herself as Stacie, majoring in “something science, probs astrophysics but we’ll see which science department is hotter”. She almost pauses too long before speaking herself, trying to work out if she was joking or not.

“Um, I’m Beca. Doing music production in arts,” she keeps it short, quickly passing off to the guy sitting against the side of the couch, apparently named Kevin. She didn’t think young Kevins existed.

She ends up in a conversation with Stacie, another girl by the name of Jess who is studying digital art, and a guy whose name and degree she already entirely forgets. It starts as small talk, which she kind of hates, but she quickly learns that Stacie is absolutely one of those people that is always straddling the line between serious and joking (and, judging by the suggestive winks she adds everywhere, straddling some other things too) and it helps them all fall into some bullshit conversation about fuck knows what. At one point it’s makeup, and she seriously can’t believe it’s a conversation she’s actually partaking in but she has strong opinions on eyeliner in particular and the dude has some very specific views on how makeup seems like, super overpriced and he might actually be a communist if Beca’s interpreting his ranting about corporate structures correctly.

It eventually reminds her that he’s studying political science.

“Hey guys, pizza good?” Chloe asks, moving into their lopsided circle during a pause in their conversation.

“Yeah, thanks,” Beca answers, trying to be polite, and the others back her up.

“Just so I make sure I remember – it’s Beca, Stacie, Jess and Gareth right?” she indicates each person as she does, all four confirming. Beca has to stifle a laugh at the reminder of Gareth’s name, because it fits _so_ well. “Great! Forgot to mention it earlier, but I’m meant to let everyone know we’re going to have a fire drill sometime tomorrow morning so everyone knows the evacuation procedure – they usually do it pretty early in the morning, so just be ready for that and just grab your keys and stand outside your door when the alarm goes and I’ll tell you what to do, that cool?”

Everyone else acknowledges the explanation, and Beca feels herself suddenly regret the four slices of pizza she’s eaten. Her reaction to _that_ science class in year nine was unexpected at the time – it’s why she remembers it almost 4 years later – but she’s now had her fair share of incidents to know she can’t fucking stand fire alarms or any form of fire. Birthday candles are a big no. Maybe she could get up early and go and sit in her car or something, but then she wouldn’t be there to be counted off or-

She tries to push herself out of her head and fall into conversation with the group, now expanded to include Chloe properly. Everyone else – Gareth included – starts to clear out of the room and return to their own spaces as it approaches 8pm, however Beca and the other three continue chatting. They offer to help Chloe clean up the pizza boxes and move the leftovers into one box in the communal kitchen’s fridge next door once everyone else has left, Chloe gratefully accepting.

“Want to come chill in my room? RAs get larger rooms, and if you want we can play a game or something – I’ve got card games, board games, the Jackbox games, whatever you want,” Chloe prompts, when they finish. Beca is reluctant for a moment, but the others accept, so she does too. She never expected to be hanging out with _people_ in someone else’s room on her first night here but it’s not as bad and she doesn’t hate it anywhere near as much as she thought. Within twenty minutes she has discovered a hidden talent at strange empire-building board games, despite having never played anything before – she very quickly owns half the world in Risk, although Stacie is holding firm in Eastern Europe.

Their board game is followed by a random card game Chloe has, and then they move into the Jackbox Cards Against Humanity clone.

“Oh, shit, I should probably go sleep I think,” Jess announces after checking her phone. Beca checks her own, realising it is quickly approaching 11pm. Not exactly late, by her standards, but she guesses it is by most.

“Oh, yeah, same I guess – sorry we crashed your room for so long,” Stacie turns to Chloe, who just shrugs.

“I invited you, I don’t mind, I don’t sleep early. Also I’m totally here for cool floor hangouts that are actual friendships, not just me trying to force everyone to hangout. It makes the year more interesting.”

“Oh, totes, think we’ll leave you too it though!” Stacie answers, and Beca figures she should leave too.

“Hey, Beca?” Chloe calls her back softly, without the other two noticing, and she panics for a minute. Did she do something wrong somehow? Did she… she doesn’t even know what it could be.

“Yeah?” she answers, slowly turning back to face Chloe.

“I noticed you were a little uncomfortable with the fire alarm – can I help with anything around that? I’m able to let you evacuate through a particular lift if the stairs are an issue for some reason, or anything like that. No judgement, and you don’t need to tell my _why_ if you do need help with anything.”

“Um, no, it’s fine, I just – had a bad experience with a fire as a kid, alarms freak me out,” she admits, “don’t think I’ll sleep tonight. But that’s okay, I’m one of those people that can do no sleep for a couple days.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that Beca – would it help if I told you when? I’m not allowed to tell everyone, but I do know exactly what time they’re setting it off?”

“Um, that would be- yeah. Could you?”

“Of course! It’ll be about ten to 6am.”

She can’t find a reason to stay any longer, so she thanks Chloe and moves back to her room, content to fall into bed for at least a few hours with her own phone alarm set for twenty to six.

* * *

She’s awake when the alarm goes off and she’s watching the clock on her phone waiting for it to start, but it still startles her and sends her into immediate panic mode. She grabs her key and the bottle of water she strategically filled a few minutes ago, trying to look casual as she steps out of the room taking a sip from the bottle, as if she’s thirsty from waking up and not trying to fight off a panic attack. She watches Chloe go up and down the hallway, knocking harshly on the doors of anyone who hasn’t appeared yet. She feels like the oxygen is being rapidly sucked out of the room and she rubs at her eyes to try and disguise the clearly panicked deep breath she takes by hiding her face behind her arm.

The computerised voiceover switches to an evacuation instruction, and Chloe is instant, instructing them all towards the fire stairs and out of the building. Beca feels herself zoning out as they join the other floors streaming down the stairways and out of the building towards the evacuation point, stumbling over one of the bottom steps and swearing under her breath as she feels it jar her ankle. It hurts to walk on for a few steps and has her panicking for a whole different reason, but it calms down as they move onto the grassy parkland in front of the building that evidently serves as their evacuation point. Chloe leads them to the edge of grass, and Beca lets herself slump down into the first bench she sees.

“Too fuckin’ early,” she mumbles, when Stacie sits down beside her, excusing away her demeanour.

“Too right,” Stacie answers through a wide yawn.

They’re told they can go back in ten minutes later, and most people do just that. Beca is content to stay there for a little while longer, sipping from her bottle of water and looking down at the ground. Her manufactured excuse, if anyone decides to ask, is that she’s tired and wants to wake up properly before she walks back up the stairs.

No one asks, but she feels someone sit down beside her and without looking she can kind of tell it’s Chloe. She doesn’t speak, simply sitting quietly beside her. It’s comforting. It reminds her vaguely of the girl who she think sat beside her in the hospital those eleven years ago. She wishes she could remember that girl’s name.

“I think I’ve met you before,” Chloe interrupts their silence, quite some time later, and Beca glances up at her in confusion, seeing her fiddling with the hi-vis jacket she was wearing earlier folded up into a tight square in her lap.

“Really? I feel like I’d remember you,” Beca responds, carefully, not wanting to offend her. Chloe’s eyes sparkle and she grins at the comment.

“I’m memorable, hey?”

“I meant because I meet very few people with your hair colour that looks very natural, but sure, if you want to take it that way,” Beca answers, hoping it’s obvious that the tone of annoyance she takes is entirely faked.

“It is natural,” Chloe winks when she responds, and it makes Beca burst out with unexpected laughter.

“Thanks for the info.”

“I am sure I’ve met you, though, but it wasn’t in great circumstances for you so I don’t blame you not remembering. It… I don’t want to bring up hard memories,” Chloe switches back to their previous conversation, surprising Beca with the heaviness of her tone. “I do want to remind you, though,” she continues, “because I know some things about you and I’d prefer you knew that I remember them, because you might consider them quite private.”

“I’m guessing you somehow know about what I meant by a bad experience with fire? I’m not sure how you would, though – I know it was on the news, or at least Mum was, but…” Beca trails off, trying to wrack her brain for bright red hair amongst the horror of that day and the following few weeks.

“My Mum is a doctor at the Royal Children’s, Elizabeth Beale – she introduces herself as Doctor Liz to kids, though. You were alone with the xylophone in the playroom so I thought I’d give you some company, and we hung out for a while. I heard you yelling at your Dad in the hospital room and asked Mum if you were okay. She told me what happened, I wanted to help somehow but I didn’t know so I just… sat with you.”

Beca doesn’t respond for a while, not able to stop the memories suddenly flooding back of that girl in the hospital. She doesn’t know how the red hair and the name fell out of her memories, how that one glimmer of positivity in the middle of her week from hell faded so much when everything else is still so clear in her mind.

“I… yeah,” Beca starts, sighing heavily, “I have vivid flashbacks of the fire, and of screaming at Dad and how much I hated moving to his house and how shit it felt to have nothing that felt like mine for a really long time, but I somehow only had the faintest memory of the girl that sat with me and made that first few hours a million times easier.”

“I’m sorry, if I’ve brought on any bad memories,” Chloe answers, softly.

“No it’s – they were already there, with the alarm. You just reminded me of the one good memory amongst all of it. I don’t think I ever thanked you then so – thank you. You really helped,” Beca feels her skin prickling at the affection she isn’t used to expressing, but it feels appropriate, in some roundabout way.

“I’m really glad it helped. I was so mad I didn’t get to see you again, and Mum couldn’t let me look you up through your hospital file or anything because privacy…” Chloe trails off. “Have we been living near each other all this time? My family is all in Toorak.”

“I was in Essendon with Dad for a couple years but he moved in with his new wife in Werribee so I’ve been out there, so not really,” Beca answers, shrugging. She tries not to stereotype the rich suburb identifier of Toorak, but she guesses a doctor for a mother… it kind of makes sense.

“Well, I’m glad I got to meet you again in better circumstances. Also, music production? Still like music?” Chloe shifts the topic slightly, and Beca is glad.

“Yeah. Music is pretty much the only thing I like. I play more than crappy wooden xylophones now, though,” Beca jokes.

“I still love music, too, although occasionally still gotta break out that wooden xylophone since I’m heading for primary teaching… Hope I can become the second thing you like, though?”

“I guess we’ll see if I can tolerate you,” Beca winks when she tells her, not sure whether Chloe is flirting or just being silly and not particularly wanting to broach that territory not long after 6am on a morning where she woke up in panic.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's hard to know what to say right now. [Thank you to anyone who has engaged with the bigger meaning of this fic, being awareness and support around the current Australian Bushfire Emergencies (post linked).](https://scentedglitter.tumblr.com/post/190042803603/fire-a-fanfic-for-bushfire-support) On New Years Eve, after I posted the first chapter and my information post on Tumblr, everything got immeasurably worse. I urge anyone interested or concerned about the exact details to look for coverage from ABC News Australia - they have a daily live blog of any important updates, and are our national emergency broadcaster so have the most accurate, up to date information. I would put more detail here but it doesn't feel right to shove in people's faces - it's quite distressing.  
> Today is meant to be as bad as New Years Eve, if not worse.
> 
> Part of me wishes I could have written a better fic, a longer fic, so I could keep trying to push the message further but there's limits to my network in this fandom and somehow this fic has my least hits ever, which is not normally something I pay attention to because I just write for my own stress relief but this time I kind of wanted more people to see the messaging, at least. Either way, this is my favourite of the three chapters so I hope anyone who reads does enjoy it.
> 
> And I hope you continue to do whatever you can either for the Australian fire recovery effort, or to help mitigate and recover from climate change related emergencies in your local area. Thank you.

“What’s up with you and Chloe?” Stacie asks Beca, as they walk back across campus to their building near the end of their third week, having run into each other walking out of neighbouring lecture theatres. With very little effort they’ve become alright friends, and Beca won’t even begin to complain. There are no attempts to go super deep and meaningful as soon as they meet, no bullshit, no judging, just chill hanging out.

“What do you mean?” Beca asks, genuinely interested, although she figures Stacie always has one particular thing front of mind.

“You fucking? Because sometimes it seems like you are,” she comments, and Beca laughs.

“Nope.”

“I saw you guys sitting together after the evacuation drill last week and whatever,” Stacie adds, more as an explanation than a question. Beca shrugs.

“We met each other when we were super young kids, and I had forgotten, she was just checking whether it was me. Which it was, but yeah, we just hung out once or twice at some thing to do with our parents when I was like, 7,” Beca explains, skimming over the details.

“Oh, okay, that’s cool. Oh, you know who I am fucking? It’s someone on our floor, guess,” Stacie rapidly changes topic and Beca can’t help but burst out laughing.

“Oh my god, do I wanna know? And have you not heard about not sleeping with people that live on the same floor as you in case shit goes bad?”

“I can handle it. It’s just sex, he knows. Also, yes, I only do dudes, so that can narrow your guessing down,” Stacie adds, shifting her bag off her shoulder and searching through the pocket for her key as they approach their building.

“Ooh, guessing?” Chloe’s voice greets them, coming from the other direction and stepping in front of them to let them into the building. “What are we guessing?”

“Which dude on our floor I’m screwing,” Stacie answers, nonchalant, and Beca feels herself blush. It’s all well and good when it’s just Stacie and her because they’re very chill but she doesn’t know how open Chloe is because she’s never mentioned anything about it but-

“Oh god, Stace, don’t give me any floor drama to deal with,” Chloe teases, but it’s clear it’s just that. “Gareth. It’s totally Gareth.”

“Um… yes. How did you?” Stacie seems surprised, and Chloe just grins.

“Just a hunch.”

“I hadn’t even had a chance to guess yet,” Beca shakes her head as they step out of the elevator on their floor and start walking up the hall.

“What about you, Chloe? Anyone hot on the floor this year?” Stacie pushes, and Chloe’s cheeks turn pink as she looks away.

“I’m an RA, I’m not allowed to hit on any first years until a month into semester because it’s like, power imbalance or something, and I totally get that but this whole floor is first years so I am required to say no…”

“So that’s a yes,” Beca answers, eyebrow raised, pausing as they reach Stacie’s room first.

“Oh, shush,” Chloe answers, also pausing, although she looks back at them and she clearly doesn’t mind the teasing.

“I gotta call the parents, but might see you guys later,” Stacie says goodbye as she opens her door and steps inside.

“You up to anything?” Chloe turns to Beca, when they start slowly walking further up the hallway. Chloe’s room is at the end, Beca’s not far from it.

“Nah,” Beca answers, “you?”

“Nope. Come hang out?”

She says yes, of course – there’s yet to be an instance where she hasn’t said yes when Chloe’s asked her over, although mostly because, much like Stacie, their friendship is very chill and relaxed and it’s… nice.

“You done that mix you were working on yet?” Chloe asks, as Beca closes the door behind them and drops her bag on the floor, flopping onto the crappy couch Chloe gets in her room. RA privileges are few, but the room is a big one.

“Oh, yeah, when I can be bothered to pull my laptop out I’ll play it. Thanks for suggesting those songs, they helped it come together really well,” she answers, before they fall into silence as Chloe moves around the room putting away things from her day.

One thing Beca can’t say is that there’s no too-quick depth to her friendship with Chloe, but… she figures it was kind of inevitable, with the whole fire thing. Not that they’d actually talked about it again.

“Have you told your Mum you met me again? Not that I think she’d remember a random patient she saw for 24 hours, but you said you tried to find me after and all,” Beca asks, when Chloe slides onto the couch beside her thirty seconds later.

“I told her someone on my floor this year was one of the kids I hung out with at the hospital, but I haven’t said who. She does remember you, you were a special kid. We both were quite worried about you, she wanted to call child protection services to check out your Dad but her superior overruled…” Chloe trails off, pausing for a moment. “Didn’t know whether you’d be okay with me telling her, didn’t want to bring it up because I don’t know you well enough to know where you’re at with all of it and the last thing I want to do is upset you or make you uncomfortable, so.”

“My Dad wasn’t like… child services wouldn’t have had an issue with him. He divorced Mum a year or so earlier and pretended he didn’t have a kid after that, so. I wasn’t comfortable with him, but he never did anything wrong. And he didn’t neglect me once he had me back or anything,” Beca shifts her head side to side, pulling some of the tension out of her shoulders. “I don’t talk about it much, and I’ve not been to a psych so no formal diagnosis but I’m pretty sure I have PTSD and I panic so easily around fire, but. I can handle acknowledging it happened in a controlled environment.”

“Can I tell my Mum? She’d be really happy to know I’m kinda friends with you again,” Chloe asks, carefully.

“Yeah,” Beca nods, “and you can tell her that seven-year-old me was already a shy little shit but thought she was pretty cool.”

“I will. Also, no pressure, but if you ever do want to talk about it or you ever need support with something, I’m always here. I mean, as your RA, I have mental health first aid training and all that but- I mostly mean as your friend I’m here for you if you need me,” Chloe’s tone is cautious again, as if she’s ready for Beca to deny their friendship – but she has no desire to do so.

“Thanks, Chlo. I… yeah. I might not be comfortable going all emotional yet but… I like hanging out with you, and I know eventually I will be,” she admits, slowly, taking a deep breath. “Anyway, want to hear that mix?”

“Yes!” Chloe squeals, wholeheartedly embracing the change in tone.

* * *

“Finally a good fucking party!” Stacie screams, one arm linked with Beca’s and the other with Chloe’s as she drags them through the backyard. It’s a house party, hosted by someone Chloe knows, and the latter had invited Stacie, Beca, Jess, and a couple others that the three had been hanging out with in classes to come along.

“What’s wrong with my floor parties?” Chloe giggles, sufficiently tipsy from their pre-gaming in her room back on campus.

“Your music is better!” Beca responds, probably too loudly, although she’s not entirely in control of her own volume anyway. Turns out she’s a fucking lightweight, not that she should be surprised given her size.

“How is that bad?”

“It’s not but yours are quieter!” Stacie supplies, before letting go of them both and heading off in the direction of someone else she spots.

Chloe shrugs, before disappearing herself off to greet the host. Beca, for her part, spies and makes a beeline for the alcohol with the hope that it will make the shitty slow rap they’re playing more bearable. Hell, she’d take boring house or radio pop music at a party because at least it’s danceable but this stuff? Ugh.

She ends up sitting somewhere in the backyard – relatively quieter than inside – with Jess and a few other people she vaguely knows, contributing little to their conversation but happy to listen and drink. Chloe attempts to drag her inside to dance, at one point, but she quickly shakes her head and tells her she doesn’t dance. She figures she’ll try again later, and maybe she won’t turn her down that time.

“Yooooooooo!” some guy roars, seeming to burst out of the back door of the house and disturbing their (somewhat) peaceful atmosphere outside a few hours in. Beca rolls her eyes, audibly groaning when he’s followed by a swelling crowd of equally drunk guys with no clear purpose other than to make a discordant racket.

She chances a glance across the circle at Jess and a couple of the other girls in the circle she knows, all returning her pointed eye-roll and the silent communication that maybe it means time to head inside. They all start slowly standing up, gauging their own stability (Beca finds, having only been sipping on one bottle of some mixed vodka drink for the last two hours, she’s actually sobered up a little) as they do so.

Three things happen very quickly.

“Fucking campfire yooooo!” one of the boys screams, although it’s a little slurred and the only word Beca’s mind picks up is ‘fire’.

Someone throws a can of petrol in the general direction of a pile of wood in the back corner of the backyard, only a couple of metres from where their circle had been before they all stood up and started moving towards the house.

Someone throws a cigarette at the stream of petrol and it ignites in a fireball back towards the idiot pouring the fuel.

He screams, and someone’s immediately pulling him away and no one got burnt, somehow, but Beca only barely held back her own scream and her mind is rapidly trying to decide between passing out and running away but she can’t even decide so she feels paralysed in space and she can feel herself shrinking as if she’s turning into a 7 year old again and she’s moving towards the house but she isn’t sure if she’s actually moving into the house or her memory is moving her into her childhood house and she can hear the bass of the music louder but it’s still just background noise and-

“Beca!” Chloe’s voice is loud in her ear, although from closeness more than volume, and Beca registers a body wrapping around her and tugging her to keep moving at the same time. She figures it’s Chloe, too, so she lets herself be pulled wherever as she tries to blink her way out of the fog.

“Beca? It’s Chloe, you’re okay, I’m taking you out the front of the house away from all the people,” Chloe reassures her, still holding her tightly, and she nods as her surroundings seem to dissolve back into existence as they walk through the small entry and out the front door.

There’s a cement retaining wall in their front garden, dividing the higher house level from the lower street, and Chloe guides her down to sit on top of it facing out onto the street. Chloe, for her part, sits at an angle, one arm around Beca’s shoulders and one knee pressed her thigh, body twisted around to face her.

“Beca? You don’t need to say anything, just… can you touch my leg, or something, let me know you’re okay?” Chloe asks, a much clearer worry in her voice than Beca expected.

“I’m okay,” she mumbles, reaching out with one arm to guide Chloe back to facing forward so she can lean against her side.

They fall into silence, then, Chloe’s arm slowly rubbing up and down Beca’s as she leans heavily against her side, trying to calm her mind and her racing pulse.

“Did I walk inside by myself or did someone push me in?” Beca asks, a few minutes later, when she feels her voice return to her.

“You walked inside with Jess but I heard someone yelling about a fire in the backyard so I tried to find you and you looked pretty spaced out,” Chloe explains, an edge underneath her tone still clear.

“Fuckhead boys thought lighting a campfire with petrol and a cigarette was a good idea,” Beca grumbles, “I pretty much blacked out as soon as I saw it light up, I don’t know how I got inside. Thanks for finding me.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner,” Chloe almost whispers, and Beca turns, studying her face.

“Chlo? It’s okay, you were there, and you’re here now, that’s enough,” Beca reassures, but Chloe just sighs.

“I am… I care about you a lot, Becs, more than you probably realise and I… maybe if I was there for you more, you would realise. And I don’t mean it like…” Chloe sighs again, trailing off into a ten-second pause that Beca isn’t sure how to respond to. “I don’t want you to think you owe me anything for looking out for you. I just want you to know you deserve someone who does look out for you.”

“I think I do know how much you care,” Beca admits, after a moment, feeling Chloe tense and start moving away in responds.

“I’m sorry, I-“

“Chloe,” she stops her, left hand reaching out to pull her closer and right gripping Chloe’s where it still rests against her arm. “I care about you a whole lot, too.”

“I don’t mean just… as a friend, though,” Chloe mumbles, eyes squeezed shut. Beca squeezes her fingers in response, finding bright blue eyes snapping open in surprise and staring into her own.

“Neither do I, Chlo. And I kind of figured it out… a while back. You looked at me and refused to say anything every time Stacie asked who you were waiting for the month to be over for,” Beca wishes her tone came across more teasing and more confident but blacking out seemed to sap all the energy and alcohol out of her system and she just feels exhausted and small.

“I could’ve been more subtle,” Chloe answers, with half a shrug. “Do you wanna walk back home, or sit here longer?”

“Home,” Beca confirms, letting Chloe unwrap herself from around her and help her down off the retaining wall onto the road below. She doesn’t let the topic go, though, nor does she let go of Chloe’s hand.

“Were you ever going to say something?”

“I don’t know. I know I’ve become an important friend to you, and I didn’t want to take that away from you. But I… you’re really incredible and gorgeous and sweet and smart and caring in your own little hidden way and- “ Chloe cuts herself off, shaking her head, “Hard to pretend I don’t have a major crush on you. I really didn’t want to hit on you when you were panicking, though.”

“I don’t think you could really call that hitting on me. Light hinting that you like me, at most,” Beca replies, with a shrug, “I know why you did. And it actually helped me let myself calm down with you.”

They fall into silence, the noise of the party dissipating to give way to the background hum of freeway traffic and cicadas as they slowly walk the four blocks back to campus. Beca’s mind jumps all over the place as they walk, between Chloe’s hand in hers – thumb moving back and forth across the back of her hand –, the party, and the stillness of the night around them. She allows Chloe to step forward and let them into the building, press the buttons on the elevator, and pull her out of the elevator and down the hallway towards her rooms. She knows she’s staring blankly and she should be trying to speak but she just…

“Becs? Where do you want to go?” Chloe’s voice is barley above a whisper, when they pause in front of Beca’s room.

“I…” Beca starts, taking a shuddering breath to try and ground herself. “Sleep,” she mumbles, instead, fumbling for her key in her pocket and moving towards her door.

“Okay, Beca. Please text me if you want company or anything at all?” Chloe requests, worry creeping into her tone again. Beca just nods slowly before pushing against her door and into her room.

She doesn’t sleep, but she doesn’t text her either. She lies flat on her bed, staring blankly into space and trying not to let her mind wander too far into any particular though. She’s not sure what time they got home, but it feels like only a couple of hours later the sun is rising, shining around the edges of the curtain she keeps closed more often than not. It’s a Saturday, and she doesn’t have to move, so she doesn’t. It was loud the previous night, everyone was going out, and it’s deathly silent in the morning, everyone probably sleeping off copious amounts of alcohol.

Her first movement for the day is when her phone, thrown on her desk across the room when she got home, dings. 10:17am, according to the screen, and she’s relieved – she doesn’t consider _why_ – when it’s just Stacie.

“Where’d you disappear last night?? You good?”

“Yeah, Chloe and I bailed when they started playing with petrol outside,” Beca types out, bringing her phone with her as she flops back down onto the bed.

“Left with Chloe hey???” Stacie’s reply is immediate and expected. Beca sighs and waves her thumb around the screen, resistant to getting deep with _another_ person but knowing she can’t do it with Chloe this time.

“Come over,” she sends, after a moment, heart pounding as she briefly stands up and wedges a shoe in the bottom of her door to hold it open before she quickly falls back onto her bed.

“What happened?” Stacie asks, her voice seeming to echo around Beca’s head as she kicks the shoe out of the way and lets the door fall shut. She seems to glance around briefly before grabbing Beca’s desk chair and pulling it over beside the bed.

“Nothing, really,” Beca supplies, grimacing when she notices her voice sounds distant and scratchy.

“That doesn’t sound like nothing.”

“I met her when I was in hospital after I got caught in a bushfire as a kid. Lost everything, Mum died, but the doctor’s kid – Chloe – was super nice and hung out with me for the whole like, 18 hours I was in hospital. I’m shit-scarred of fire and she knows so she like… freaked out when she heard someone lit a fire in the backyard last night, and she took me out the front to calm down which I needed it was great but…” Beca sighs, falling into silence.

“But…?” Stacie prompts, showing no hostility to the unexpected honesty.

“I’ve known she has a thing for me for a while and it’s mutual. She kind of accidentally admitted it I guess and freaked out, I told her it was fine I felt the same and we walked back here holding hands but I just kind of… went back into panic mode and zoned out and ran into my room alone and now I don’t know how to approach her.”

“Oh, damn. I’m glad you’ve had someone who knew that to look out for you, and you guys are like… not at all subtle, so I’m glad something might be happening too but you probably need to tell her why you ran off when you got back here last night?”

“I guess but… panic attacks are fucking exhausting,” Beca mumbles, looking away from Stacie over at the wall.

“I can imagine they would be. I’m sure Chloe would be happy to just sit quietly with you, though, if that’s what you wanted. And if you don’t want that… I can grab you some food or something, and I’ve gotta write an essay but I could grab my stuff and sit in here doing it?” Stacie suggests, carefully, and Beca just shakes her head.

“Thanks, but I’m good. I… should go see her. Sorry I dumped all that on you I just needed it out of my head but I couldn’t really go to her and-“

“Hey, it’s all good, B. What friends are for, right?” Stacie cuts her off, and Beca manages a nod against her pillow, briefly glancing over and giving half a smile. “I’ll leave you to it, but please go talk to her? I can tell you want to.”

“Yeah, I will soon,” Beca promises, and she means it, although it takes her ten minutes to force herself out of bed to grab her drink bottle, phone and key card to trudge down the hallway.

“Just a moment!” Chloe acknowledges when she knocks on the door, and usually she’d respond to indicate it was her but she just lets her head lean gently against the door frame instead until she hears footsteps approach the door.

“Hey. Can I come in?” she asks, softly, when the door opens. She tries to swallow the guilt she feels at the redness around Chloe’s eyes and the sheer relief on her face when she steps aside to let her into the room.

“Is everything okay?” Chloe asks, voice breaking slightly, and Beca can see from the awkward way she’s holding her hands that she’s fighting not to hug her.

“Yeah I- I’m sorry I ran off last night, there was too much in my head and I just kind of didn’t know what to do with it. I… truthfully, kind of wanted to stay with you, but I didn’t know how to ask,” she admits, hesitating for a moment longer before reaching out to take Chloe’s hands in hers and lift them up between them.

“Can I hug you?” she asks, voice stronger as she looks down at their now-joined hands. Beca mumbles an affirmative, letting go of her hands and sinking into her arms when they wrap around her shoulders. “I really regret my timing. Even if you’re okay with it, I just… I was worried I ruined it by letting it slip when you weren’t all there, and I gave you too much to think about. I just wanted to protect you and I’m sorry I took it too far.”

“Maybe the timing wasn’t great but it’s… whatever,” Beca answers, reluctantly pulling back, although not far enough for Chloe’s arms to leave her shoulders and not far enough for her own to leave her waist. “I don’t want to let it be ruined, whatever it is.”

“Then we won’t. Can I take you out to dinner Tuesday?” Chloe asks, and Beca can’t fight back her responding smile.

“Yeah. That’d be nice. Can I crash on your couch now? I haven’t slept yet.”

“I haven’t either, we can both crash on my bed,” Chloe suggests, and Beca nods as she lets herself be pulled into Chloe’s small separate bedroom, immediately falling down onto one side of the double bed and closing her eyes.

She feels Chloe lie down facing her, reaching out to take Beca’s hand in her own as they both let themselves drift into peaceful sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [A final link to my explainer post (although the situation described is out of date and things are now much worse - the support information remains correct)](https://scentedglitter.tumblr.com/post/190042803603/fire-a-fanfic-for-bushfire-support)

**Author's Note:**

> [Here's the link to my explainer & donation information post again.](https://scentedglitter.tumblr.com/post/189953058563/fire-a-fanfic-for-bushfire-support)


End file.
